Lost in translation…

Okay, before I start banging on about how utterly gorgeous Brittany is, and how breathtaking Mont-Saint-Michel is, and how gobsmacking St Malo is – clearly I have run out of superlatives – I have to tell you…

I’ve been wondering why the waiters have been looking at me quizzically when I order those double expressos avec du lait sur le côté.

It’s all in the pronunciation – and the secret is in the sneaky accent on the ‘e’ (é). Which subtly changes ‘coat’ into ‘coat-aye’.

So here I am ordering milk ‘on the coast’ (côte) instead of ‘on the side’ (côté). Tch!

Now I understand why my French teacher kept telling us to ‘hit the ending’. Learning by doing…